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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731291">The Devil’s Advocate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gold_Vermillion/pseuds/Gold_Vermillion'>Gold_Vermillion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Death Eater Draco Malfoy, Death Eaters, Dubious Morality, Gen, Isolation, Light Angst, Moral Dilemmas, Morally Ambiguous Character, Unredeemed Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:42:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731291</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gold_Vermillion/pseuds/Gold_Vermillion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>OR: Three Reasons Why Malfoy hates Marietta </p>
<p>Summer 1997 and Draco has been sent by his mother to 'visit' a 'friend' for the holidays between his sixth and seventh year of school. Except the 'friend' is Marietta Edgecome, who Draco barely knows and who, it transpires, has some very wrong ideas about Death Eaters, Muggles and Wizard Politics.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy &amp; Marietta Edgecombe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Devil’s Advocate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Important Note:<br/>Through posting here I in no way endorse trans exclusionary comments made by JKR or anyone else. <br/>Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary people are nonbinary. <br/>And you, Dear Reader, wherever you fall on the many glorious spectrums of humanity, your identity is valid, your life matters, and so do your human rights – this is especially true if anyone in power is saying (or implying) otherwise.<br/>Love you all,<br/>Gold Vermillion</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was all Mothers fault, thought Draco, sourly. He had just completed a full circuit of the Edgecombe’s pokey London flat and found it to be devoid of life. Well, apart from the abomination that was Marietta Edgecombe - sprawled out on the settee, tousle-haired, pyjama-clad and makeup-less - So, in other words, devoid of meaningful life. Marietta wasn’t even wearing glamour charms, the bitch. It was like she was not even trying to prevent Draco from purveying the crusty, puss-filled, scabby pimples that spelled out S-N-E-A-K across her face. Some of the older ones appeared to have turned to scars, silvery, dimpled and pock-like. Reflexively, Draco ran a hand over his abdomen. At least Potter had maimed Draco in a way that was easy to hide. Granger, however, was a troll. Draco had always known this. Actually, Granger was a Mudblood - so, you know, potato, potaahto, et cetera. </p>
<p>“There’s bread in the kitchen, if you want toast.” Edgecombe flipped a page on her book without looking up.</p>
<p>“Right. So. I’ll just see to it myself, then, shall I?”</p>
<p>“Well, you <em>could </em>have eaten breakfast with the rest of us, if you hadn’t decided to be so fashionably late.” </p>
<p>“11 am is a perfectly reasonable waking hour during the summer holidays. Thanks ever so.”</p>
<p>“Sure, sure. And making your own breakfast is a perfectly reasonable occupation. Even as a guest, soooo…” Edgecombe flipped another page. Draco huffed a sigh and headed for the kitchen. The summer was going to be grand. He could see it now. This was definitely all Mother’s fault.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Except, it wasn’t really. It wasn’t Narcissa’s fault that Father was in Azkaban and Draco wasn’t the Dark Lord’s favourite boy; far from. Or that there were Death Eaters in Malfoy Manor, or that Draco had been too spineless to kill a defenceless, wandless old man and instead had waited until… Well. There wasn’t really a need to dwell on it. Nevertheless, had Draco been more decisive there would not currently be a need for him to be in hiding - sorry, ah ‘visiting’ a ‘friend’ - over the summer holidays between sixth and seventh year. A ‘friend’ whom he hardly knew and who’s family (Draco strongly suspected) had been bribed to take him. Whether the bribe had come in the form of galleons or in the currency of Ministry favour and social toadying, or both, was uncertain. However, Draco was quite sure the Edgecombe family must be getting more out of this arrangement than just the dubious benefit of six weeks of his delightful and cherubic presence. It had been Narcissa’s idea. Draco knew that his mother had done it because she wanted him out of harm's way and that she loved him. This didn’t make the whole situation on jot less miserable, and if one couldn’t blame one’s own mother for one’s misery, then the world was even more fucked than Draco had previously thought. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>o - O - o</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Draco, that’s Death Eater propaganda and you know it.” Edgecombe swung her legs down from the settee, marking the place in her book with a finger, and scowled at him. </p>
<p>“It most certainly is not.” Draco had finished his toast and was now reading the <em>Daily Prophet</em> and attempting to drink tea and make off-hand polite-ish conversation. Well, he had been, before Edgecombe had proved herself to be both an idiot AND wrong. “Wizards are a superior subspecies of humanity and muggles are a lesser one. This isn’t any type of propaganda; it is simply a fact.”</p>
<p>“Right,” said Marietta, rolling her eyes, “do you even know what subspecies is, Draco?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“So, what is it, then?”</p>
<p>“You don’t honestly mean to tell me that you think muggles are superior to wizards?” said Draco, in his best fake-shocked voice. “Because I am just <em>dying </em>to hear how you argue your way out of that one. The suspense is killing me.”</p>
<p>“Now you’re trying to put words in my mouth. I never said that muggles were superior to wizards.”</p>
<p>“Don’t try and get out of the argument now, just because you have realised you are wrong.”</p>
<p>“I’m not wrong. I just never….” Marietta put down her book with a snort, “You make me so cross. Clearly, the idea that wizards are a genetically superior version of humanity is propaganda. It’s an argument designed to excuse the actions of wizards who want to muggle-bait and lord it over half-bloods and muggleborns. How can you not know that?”</p>
<p>“And how does any of that make my statement untrue? Wizards can perform magic and muggles can’t, that isn’t propaganda, it’s just true. Conversely, there isn’t anything that muggles can do that wizards can’t and there is clearly a huge advantage to being able to use magic: Ergo, wizards are superior to muggles - like it or not it’s a fact. Furthermore, Magic also appears to have some kind of genetic component, as it is more likely that children of witches and wizards will be magical. Add to that a tendency for magical people the world over to interbreed with each other - and let's be honest here, even blood-traitors are more likely to marry in-house, even if they pretend otherwise - and you are left with a kind of self-selecting genetic isolation. Which, I believe, is the definition of subspecies. Am I right or am I right?”</p>
<p>“You, Draco, are entirely missing the point. Something doesn’t have to be an outright lie in order for it to be propaganda. A highly canted version of the truth works, too. Is arguably more dangerous, even. Let us say, for argument's sake, that there is a genetic component to magical ability. Let us even gloss over the fact that genetic science is a field of knowledge that was not only discovered by muggles, but is still dominated by them: If wizards had been left to their own devices we wouldn’t even know what a subspecies was, let alone be able to have a debate as to whether wizards and witches count as one, superior or otherwise. OK, so let's assume there is a genetic component to magic. There are many genetic variations within humanity. Some people can run faster than others; some can see colour better than others; some people’s singing voice is naturally richer, and other people are naturally tall, or have particularly robust tooth enamel. Then there are the inheritable traits that arguably make life more challenging, like deafness, blindness, an inability to walk, missing fingers or an inability to digest lactose. Heck, if it comes to it, quite a few people need glasses to see properly, including quite a few well-known wizards, incidentally.”</p>
<p>“I always knew you were secretly a Potter fan.”</p>
<p>“Potter doesn’t have anything to do with this. For goodness sake, Draco, get a grip. My point is that there is genetic variation in everyone - there’s nothing special about there being variation in magical ability. Yet, we don’t feel a need to split the world into those who can eat wheat bread and those who can’t. Being gluten intolerant does not make one part of a non-bread-eating subspecies of humanity.”</p>
<p>“Although it arguably should. Gluten intolerant people are very annoying. I would have no objection to them breeding with one another and leaving the rest of us alone.”</p>
<p>“Draco!”</p>
<p>“Fine. Be like that. By all means continue.”</p>
<p>“Being magical doesn’t make someone a better human that someone who is not, just like eating pasta doesn’t make someone a better human than someone who can’t. The only reason the idea of magical superiority is so popular, is because it plays into the political idea that wizards should be allowed to lord it over everyone else, just because they can use <em>lumos </em> to light a room, draw water from the air using <em>aguamenti,</em> or levitate small objects by waving a glorified piece of wood at them. Add to this the belief that pure-bloods are superior to the rest of the magical population and boom, you have Death Eater philosophy 101 in a nutshell. It's cultural and political one-upmanship - whether there is scientific merit backing their arguments or otherwise is largely irrelevant. Hence, the idea that wizards are superior to muggles is Death Eater propaganda. I rest my case.”</p>
<p>“But you haven’t actually proved that I’m wrong.”</p>
<p>“Oh, for goodness sake.” Marietta picked up her book again and through herself back onto the settee. “Be ignorant, then. Just go be ignorant elsewhere, you’re giving me a headache.”</p>
<p>“Fine,” said Draco, sniffing and picking up the paper. “If you are going to be like that, I shall retire to my room.” He had never liked Marietta Edgecombe, anyway.  </p>
<p> </p>
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